Due to the presence of complex and diverse application environments in the field, the requirements of the distributed networked data acquisition devices are also varied. It is well-known that the conventional data acquisition devices have problems with limited signal processing speeds, lower level of integration, unable to implement distributed data acquisition and remote data integration processing, unable to meet the complex processing requirements, and the having of limited data throughputs, etc. For example, a so-called “data acquisition sensor” is related to a new type of passive remote data acquisition sensor in the field of water meters, electric meters, gas meters, and other data acquisition and transmission instruments. The sensor is mainly applied in the data acquisition, data storage, and data transmission of a wide variety of currently popular diversified direct-read register typed meters; and the sensor can only be connected with the direct-read meters. Another example, is a so-called “remote data acquisition and transmission system”, comprises of a data acquisition terminal which connects with a main processor via the RS232 serial ports/universal serial bus interface. The aforementioned processor then connects, receives, and compresses the data collected from the data acquisition terminal, and then transmits the processed data to a transmission module. Its distinguishing feature is the ability for implementing wireless data transmission. But the wireless transmission is of high-cost, and is of poor stability because of weather conditions, and other factors. The aforementioned conventional patented product has a data acquisition terminal that cannot achieve multi-point data acquisition over long distances. In short, the shortcomings of the data acquisition devices presently available include the following:
1) Is able to collect only single species of signals. The devices can only collect discrete signals, but cannot handle continuous signals, so that it has inadequate interchangeability, and has limited applications.
2) Has only a single acquisition point. The device cannot meet and adapt to the complex processing requirements which requires multi-point data acquisition over long distances and simultaneous analytical processing. The processing speed is not high enough, and the extensibility is inadequate.3) Has poor communication capability. Because the single chip microcomputer (SCM) uses serial interfaces for performing remote data transmission by means of communication broadcast equipments, it is therefore difficult to guarantee high-speed real-time data transmission, and also difficult for achieving internet communications or making the presently available systems with the acquisition devices to be “firmly bonded” with the communication equipments. As the present environment changes or as the external equipments requires updating, it is necessary to adjust the peripheral equipments and to modify the source codes in the control system, which leads to having relatively difficult system maintenance.4) The speed of data processing is yet to be raised. The speed is not high enough because of the complexity of the directives processing and the speed bottleneck for communications between the CPU and the peripherals such as the memory. These reasons have led to inadequate speeds that are not adaptable to support situations where the data processing requirements are much higher, such as in image processing.